Standrex Posted May 13 Report Posted May 13 I was trying to make a change to my elastic shoulder connection accidentally broke my shoulder bridge. I ordered a new set of shoulder Bridges but when I finally got them the other day, they were more of a creamy white than the rest of my armor (which by comparison seems to be more of a bluish tint). To me at least, this is sticking out like a sore thumb. Short of painting the entire suit so it's uniform is there anything I can do? I'm not very pleased with the idea of painting my armor. My other option that I am considering is just making it into a TD Sandy... Does anybody have any ideas? I've thought about trying to use peroxide to bleach both, but since it's not really yellowing, I don't think that it's going to work since it's the actual color of the ABS... Quote
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted May 13 Report Posted May 13 There is Retr0bright which can return yellowing armor back to white but the issue you have is they are new pieces, I am not even sure if you could color them enough for a Sandy. Painting may be the only option, unless you can fix your broken shoulder, perhaps post up an image or two so we can have a look how bad it is. Quote
TheSwede[TK] Posted May 13 Report Posted May 13 Why not just paint the bridges to match your armor? No shoulder bridges on a TD so all good there. 1 Quote
Standrex Posted May 14 Author Report Posted May 14 Could I get away with painting just the shoulder bridges? I think somebody else on Walt's Facebook page suggested that, too. I doubt it would be noticable if done right... I guess I could play around and see what I could do... What harm is it going to be? And Retrobrite/peroxide: I have a friend that repairs older Star Wars toys in particular (and other vintage toys/comics). He doesn't think that it would work because as I was thinking, it's not really yellowing. It's the actual tint of the plastic itself... I think that I actually read somewhere else the same thing... I'm not going to make any big decisions immediately. I'm going to give it some thought and while I'm at it, I may as well experiment with that paint project. I have a couple of Testors paint kits and a few of that other brand that's recommended that I used for the buttons on my ab plate. This is one of those rare times I wish that I had an airbrush kit... I thought that I had submitted or sent this yesterday but apparently not.... Amazingly enough, I came back to the page today and it was sitting there waiting to be sent... Quote
Standrex Posted May 14 Author Report Posted May 14 22 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said: There is Retr0bright which can return yellowing armor back to white but the issue you have is they are new pieces, I am not even sure if you could color them enough for a Sandy. Painting may be the only option, unless you can fix your broken shoulder, perhaps post up an image or two so we can have a look how bad it is. I forgot to add that I completely snapped the shoulder bridge in half. I have considered taking a small strip of abs and gluing it on the underside and then making some ABS paste to kind of... What's the word? Meld? Seal? I'm not sure how much I would trust this if it's flopping around though... You know I pretty sure that I have at least one piece but I'm not sure about the other piece come to think of it... I'll see if I can get the two together and take some pics 1 Quote
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted May 14 Report Posted May 14 1 hour ago, Standrex said: I forgot to add that I completely snapped the shoulder bridge in half. I have considered taking a small strip of abs and gluing it on the underside and then making some ABS paste to kind of... What's the word? Meld? Seal? I'm not sure how much I would trust this if it's flopping around though... You know I pretty sure that I have at least one piece but I'm not sure about the other piece come to think of it... I'll see if I can get the two together and take some pics I've seen that done before. I always add a piece of ABS sheet behind the shoulder straps for strength, they can be a bit flimsy. 1 Quote
Standrex Posted May 14 Author Report Posted May 14 I used a small piece of abs under there to help secure it to the chest plate... It would be a good idea to add something to add to it... I think I'm going to end up doing that either way after that one smapping (unless I do go TD)... I was talking with my co-worker/friend today about painting (I work at Lowe's). I saw some appliance touch up paint and started thinking, but it's nine bucks and is the same thing as my Testers paints, so we're going to skip that for now. He was telling me about using adhesion promoter before primer... It's going to be something that I'm going to have to take my time with because bills have jumped up due to a an accident a few months ago... I think our biggest trick is going to be matching the color once I determine the type of paint (he's thinking acrylic the Testers never seems to fully dry and seems to stay slightly soft... And then we were thinking about having some kind of clear outer coat. Thoughts? Experiences? Quote
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted May 15 Report Posted May 15 2 hours ago, Standrex said: I think our biggest trick is going to be matching the color once I determine the type of paint (he's thinking acrylic the Testers never seems to fully dry and seems to stay slightly soft... And then we were thinking about having some kind of clear outer coat. Thoughts? Experiences? I eye matched some acrlylic artist paint to match a U trim to armor, it was stark white, I coated in RustOleum gloss clear, it did protect it a bit but any scratches it still comes off. For small areas that would be the cheaper method. For my First Order Stormtrooper I painted it all with automotive acrylic paint, that has stuck really well and I also cleared it. If you don't mind the price the 2K clear paint most use on their Mandalorian builds is as tough as nails, in spray can form you have a button you press to mix the hardener to the paint, down side you have 24 hours to use it or it sets hard in the can. Really depends also on what you are comfortable using as well as what's available and of course price. 1 Quote
Standrex Posted May 15 Author Report Posted May 15 That was something that we (coworker and I) had talked about- automotive paint. We had another co-worker that quit and went to work for somewhere that sells automotive paint, so I do have that as a resource hopefully... So glad I decided to take my time and give it some thought and not start ripping things apart... I still haven't found those two pieces... But I really haven't had a chance to look around too much... They have to be in one of a couple of places... I really appreciate everybody's input!! My last Garrison in West Virginia assigned us an advisor to guide us and give input... I had the impression that each Garrison had advisors but apparently not... but I had also been led to believe that there were certain things to avoid that apparently we can do (such as using elastic rather than just simple nylon strapping in certain areas)... I'll continue to add to this as kind of like a build thread... 1 Quote
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted May 15 Report Posted May 15 5 hours ago, Standrex said: I really appreciate everybody's input!! My last Garrison in West Virginia assigned us an advisor to guide us and give input... I had the impression that each Garrison had advisors but apparently not... but I had also been led to believe that there were certain things to avoid that apparently we can do (such as using elastic rather than just simple nylon strapping in certain areas)... I'll continue to add to this as kind of like a build thread... There can be differences in a lot of garrisons, quite common, not all have advisers but that's why we have detachments. Elastic is the best to use as it has some give for movement, nylon and velco can be very restrictive. Quote
Standrex Posted May 18 Author Report Posted May 18 Afterthought over the weekend, I went to work this morning and talked to the guy in the paint department. I had a suspicion and it was verified that there's a machine that can scan an item and give you the most accurate color... So it looks like I'm going to be bringing in some of my armor to have it scanned and I'll be able to find the correct color white... I also did research and realized how wrong that I was about acrylic paint. I thought that because it was water soluble, that it would run if it got wet... This is not so and my stupidity is showing... In fact, the more that I read about acrylic paint, the more I kind of like the idea of using it... Over the weekend, I pulled out the helmet that I haven't put together from the kit (I still have the helmet from my other build that I was going to use). I'm thinking about going ahead and slowly putting it together so that I have another backup helmet if nothing else... I may actually like this helmet more (although I have spent quite a bit of money on my first helmet to give it that special look- I ordered padding that is supposed to look like the inside of a stormtrooper helmet.). I also found the old shoulder bridge that broke... I forgot that when I was stupid enough to try to take it off, it ended up breaking into more pieces because of the adhesion- it was really stuck on there... I think that the new shoulder bridges that I bought that need to be painted might end up working out better anyways. When it was molded, it has a natural arch to it... There was some other stuff that I fiddled around and did this weekend but I can't think of what it was... I did work on my shins some more... I researched rivets... And found the extra split rivets from my other build... At least I'm staying motivated right now... Although I do feel like I'm losing steam... 1 Quote
Standrex Posted May 20 Author Report Posted May 20 I noticed something after I had already started adding glue to my sniper plate. One side I'm pretty sure is correct... But the other side of the sniper plate got confusing... It isn't symmetrical to the other side... When I look at it straight on, it does look a little uneven... But if I bring up the side that is incorrect, it's not going to line up right... Quote
Standrex Posted May 20 Author Report Posted May 20 From this perspective, it doesn't look straight... Quote
Standrex Posted May 20 Author Report Posted May 20 Well, I was trying to upload more pictures but it's refusing to let me even though I keep shrinking the size of the pictures... And then I realized it said something about TOTAL image size... And I even refreshed the page but it won't let me send another picture... I was trying to include pictures that showed where the bottom edge can be seen. It looks like it's an issue with the mold... Shall I cut the bottom edge back? It's still going to look a little off center... But if I raise it up so that the bottom edge meets the armor, the top isn't going to line up... Recommendations? Quote
Sly11[Admin] Posted May 20 Report Posted May 20 The server can only hold a small amount of images due to the sheer voloume of members. You need to use a share service like IMGUR or Flicker, to be able to share unlimited images. 1 Quote
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted May 20 Report Posted May 20 1 hour ago, Standrex said: Well, I was trying to upload more pictures but it's refusing to let me even though I keep shrinking the size of the pictures... And then I realized it said something about TOTAL image size... And I even refreshed the page but it won't let me send another picture... I was trying to include pictures that showed where the bottom edge can be seen. It looks like it's an issue with the mold... Shall I cut the bottom edge back? It's still going to look a little off center... But if I raise it up so that the bottom edge meets the armor, the top isn't going to line up... Recommendations? Some heat (hot water bath or heat gun, with practice) and twist the knee plate so it sits a little straighter, but it can common to be on a slant, here's one Quote
Standrex Posted May 21 Author Report Posted May 21 Heat gun: the funny thing is is that I was looking for the heat the other day to use on getting the shins to be more... Narrow... I never did find it but it can't be far because I used it a couple of weeks ago. I'll try that as soon as I find it. Re: images... I was thinking that there was probably some sort of limit... I remember seeing a lot of imgurs. I have noticed that I I haven't really seen any this build... I thought it was white armor's format that wasn't allowing it... I haven't heard anything about any investigation, but if it's being done in the uk, that's probably why... I think that's probably why I'm not able to access a lot of the information that I found before then because there has been so much that I vaguely remember but can't find the pictures of... They must have been imgur! I'm not feeling quite as stupid now... Thank you for the update. I forgot to add yesterday that I had a piece of armor scanned at work and they mixed and exact match for painting the shoulder bridges! Now I have to see about this adhesion promoter... I looked it up at work and ended up finding a primer. I'm not sure what the difference between the two would be. I guess I'll Google it. Meanwhile, I have an 18" C3PO with a red arm. The gold is more like a Dijon mustard color... So, Im experimenting with the primer to see if I like it enough for the armor. Heck, I might actually start working on the shoulder Bridges this weekend if I like it (I do need to trim them any way). Quote
Standrex Posted May 24 Author Report Posted May 24 I trimmed down the new shoulder Bridges today. Usually with my other suits from Walt's, the shoulder Bridges have always been flat and of course you would have to shape them. These guys came pre-shaped, which I kind of like... I thought something was different, but I thought between the color and the pre-shaped arch, that was it. But after I trim them down just now, I noticed that these new ones are significantly longer. Lol! So I just did research and found a link. It was nothing definitive from what I perceived, it was pretty much one of those things it could go either way where you cut the last tab off at the back. It's like for the larger guys they usually leave it on and for the shorter and smaller guys they go ahead and cut it off. I noticed that Mr Rhodes (gmrhodes13) had edited that thread. Has any of this been confirmed? (Btw, didn't realize you were Australian! Awesome!) Quote
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted May 24 Report Posted May 24 1 hour ago, Standrex said: I trimmed down the new shoulder Bridges today. Usually with my other suits from Walt's, the shoulder Bridges have always been flat and of course you would have to shape them. These guys came pre-shaped, which I kind of like... I thought something was different, but I thought between the color and the pre-shaped arch, that was it. But after I trim them down just now, I noticed that these new ones are significantly longer. Lol! So I just did research and found a link. It was nothing definitive from what I perceived, it was pretty much one of those things it could go either way where you cut the last tab off at the back. It's like for the larger guys they usually leave it on and for the shorter and smaller guys they go ahead and cut it off. I noticed that Mr Rhodes (gmrhodes13) had edited that thread. Has any of this been confirmed? (Btw, didn't realize you were Australian! Awesome!) I suggest not continuing to post in this area, this is for Forum Help & Support, we have build areas for posting questions and builds. Yes the removal of the last tab has been confirmed but is not a requirement at any level, it is only a suggestion. Some makes of shoulder straps allow the last large tab to be cut in half so it looks like a small tab NOTE: As seen in the photos below, there are no large tabs on the rear of the shoulder bridges. This is not specifically mentioned in the CRL, but removing them is highly recommended if possible. CRL: Shoulder Straps These shall be securely mounted in front and may free float in back. They may be affixed with rivets, Velcro, or adhesive. The rear tab of the shoulder strap is optional and may or may not be present. OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable): No visible rivets are allowed. OPTIONAL Level three certification (if applicable): These shall free float in back. These shall be glued in front. The plastic shoulder straps need to be held down in the back via a white elastic band to the white fabric that connects/bridges the chest and back piece. Suggested in Centurion applications, here's one "(the large tabs were not present in the films)." Quote
giskard8[Staff] Posted May 26 Report Posted May 26 Moderation Action : This post has been moved to a more appropriate section for armor / repair discussion. Have fun and good luck. 1 Quote
Standrex Posted Saturday at 07:17 PM Author Report Posted Saturday at 07:17 PM Sorry and thanks Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.